


Ophiuchus

by spikenard



Category: American Revolution RPF
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 03:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6103513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spikenard/pseuds/spikenard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>hamilton & lafayette, prompt #6: things you said under the stars and in the grass</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ophiuchus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ossapher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ossapher/gifts).



> request on tumblr; vague canon-era, zero research, unbetaed and unedited, this was supposed to get more gay trio-y than it did, alas.

The campfire lay slowly dying at their feet. Most of the other men - including the General, as well as Laurens and the rest of the aides - had filed back to their tents and the relative comfort of the bedding there. Only Lafayette and Hamilton still remained. 

Hamilton had wadded up his military jacket to serve as their pillow, and thus he and Lafayette were pressed side to side, in order that they might both make use of it. 

The ground was grassy rather than rocky; though slightly uncomfortable, Hamilton was used to sleeping rough. Lafayette had spread his heavy winter cloak over them, though the unseasonably warm fall weather by no means demanded such insulation. Their close proximity, paired with the cloak’s thick wool, generated quite a comfortable warmth, even though their boots and faces were exposed to the twilight air. 

Lafayette’s hair tickled against Hamilton’s cheek each time he took a breath.

Hamilton, himself, was scrutinizing the night sky. He himself was not a poet; the stars had little charm for him. Neither had he much to do with astronomy; his education had been far more reliant on secreting himself away by candlelight far into the night than on stargazing with a tutor. His main associations with the night sky came from his transit to these Colonies, during which time he had attempted to master the art of stellar navigation without any aid or assistance, merely from want of something more productive to do. 

These same stars, he thought, must hang over his home - over Nevis, that is, and yet he had not known of them there, as he did not appreciate their beauty now, or here.

Lafayette’s voice intruded on his thoughts. “What are you thinking, Ham?” 

Hamilton attempted to collect his scattered thoughts. “Oh, of nothing in particular. Just - ruminating on the stars,” he added, in as whimsical a tone as he could manage, attempting to milk a bit of humor from his moment of gloomy introspection.

“Yes,” Lafayette said, his voice serious. “They are beautiful, are they not?” 

Hamilton could not help but laugh at Lafayette’s earnest and genuine manner; Lafayette could be so fierce in battle that it was easy to forget how strongly he felt and expressed more sentimental feelings, as well. 

“They are!” Lafayette protested, pushing at Hamilton’s smaller form beneath the cloak, his fingers scrabbling over Hamilton’s bare shirtsleeves. Hamilton felt a thrum, briefly - but then a too-hard brush of Lafayette's nails against Hamilton’s ribs caused him to cry out with laughter; he then took the opportunity to kick at Lafayette’s much-longer shins. Their struggle escalated, both young men giggling, until Lafayette inadvertently pulled the cloak off of Hamilton entirely. 

The shock of cold air caused Hamilton to promptly surrender with a yelp, clinging to the edge of the cloak and scrambling to remain covered. 

“There,” Lafayette said. “Do not mock me - I _have_ used the correct words to describe, yes? I was sure of it.” 

Hamilton, chuckling again once he had been accepted back into the warmth of his friend’s embrace, drew himself up onto an elbow to rearrange their pillow, which had been mussed by their tussle. 

“Yes,” he said, “you had the right of it, when it comes to the words, I only laughed because I had not held you to be a poet.”

Hamilton looked down at his friend, and noted a bright blush illuminating Lafayette’s face. 

“Oh, hush,” Lafayette said, turning his face away. “It is only - the other men, they do not know what it is like to - to be so far from home.”

Hamilton let out a noise of assent, more to encourage Lafayette to continue his speech than out of any real agreement. Hamilton rested his hand on Lafayette’s shoulder beneath the cloak, and Lafayette looked back at him, his normally smooch brow furrowed in distress.

“It is a strange sort of sorrow, still to long for home when I fighting for a cause I believe in, and while I am surrounded by men I hold in such high esteem,” he said, softly, and still with a blush on his cheeks, though it was barely visible in the glow of the embers and the faint starlight.

“I don’t miss - where I come from,” Hamilton replied, honestly, though he could not bring himself to call the islands home. “But when it comes to men I hold in high esteem -”

And here Hamilton brushed hair out of Lafayette’s eyes, as he might have done for a maiden he was wooing. Lafayette’s lips parted briefly as Hamilton leaned down, but whether in surprise or outrage he could not say, for they were interrupted; Laurens was calling out to them. 

As he approached, Hamilton pulled away from Lafayette, in attempt to feign propriety - not that propriety had been broached, of course, or that it could have been, between friends as close, and with sensibilities so aligned, as Hamilton believed his own to be with those of Lafayette. 

“There you are,” Laurens cried, hastening towards them. “Dampen that fire, and come back to the tents; honestly, you two, Hamilton is liable to catch his death sleeping out in the cold like this.” 

Laurens turned away to busy himself with the remnants of the fire as the two other officers each pulled themselves to their feet; if Lafayette dropped a kiss against Hamilton’s cheek, or even his mouth, in the process, no one else was there to see it.


End file.
